Designing and assessing graded discussions in MyUni

Design MyUni Discussions as graded assignments by scaffolding to include guidelines and a relevant rubric with measurable criteria.

Asynchronous discussion forums, particularly those using a “post once, reply twice” format, often receive criticism from both teachers and students. Teachers often view discussions as ineffective for achieving learning goals, and students can find them mundane and obligatory. However, the issue lies not with the discussion forums themselves, but with how discussions are often added as an afterthought, rather than being thoughtfully designed and integrated into the course structure.

MyUni offers a comprehensive system for class discussions, enabling both teachers and students to initiate and engage in discussion topics. These discussions facilitate interactive communication among participants, allowing conversations with the entire class or specific groups. These discussions can be assigned for grading purposes, seamlessly integrating with the MyUni Gradebook, or used as forums for topical and current events. An assessed discussion can be graded in Speedgrader using a rubric.

Learning objectives

In this workshop, you will be supported to:​

• contextualise the discussion assignment by explaining how it fits into the course

• delineate the steps, and specify the content, structure, and format of discussion submissions and how many there should be

• clarify grading by specifying grading guidelines and how to find and view the corresponding marking rubric

• scaffold responses by giving students guidelines or guiding questions to shape how they reply to their peers

• set up and build the assignment using the Canvas Discussion tool with relevant settings

• use a simulated example to review how this might work for the live assessment.

This workshop is only available to staff from the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia (including the Integration Management Office). Please ensure that you register with your University staff email account.